Bodie and Glitch - A secret kept
by BodieOfRiptide
Summary: FIRST STORY I'VE MADE - Glitch is the constant victim of Homosexuality-based bullying, and his answer to that is secretive self-harm. After a particularly significant assault, he fails to hide the secret anymore from Bodie. How does Bodie react at this discovery, and what goes on from there? Rated M for Trigger Warnings, mild violence, potentially sexual themes - Please R/R!
1. Chapter 1

Glitch slipped through the door into the apartment that he and his boyfriend, Bodie shared. Boyfriend - sometimes, he loved that word. It was the word that meant that he had Bodie to himself. Someone to love; but more importantly, someone who would love him. But he hated that word sometimes. When he was gone, he had nobody he could call by that word. Nobody to call upon. Nobody to protect him from those who didn't approve of him. Glitch fought back the urge to jerk tears out of eyes; he just came back from a brutal scolding by people from school. He was open about this relationship; he didn't talk about it at school, but he didn't care if he was seen showing affection with Bodie. His friends thought no lesser of him - they treated him as any other. Other close-minded students found an extreme distaste in Glitch, and consequently, he became the subject of gossip and bullying. In a cold voice, he remembered the words "fag" and "gay" pierce their way into his mind like venom.

Glitch rushed passed this assault; he was naturally weak to verbal abuse, and this confrontation was only one of many. He stopped in place at a person his height stood before his path. He maintained an empty look - this was not the time to show emotion. Sporting a deathly firm gaze, the boy forced his arm at Glitch's neck in a horizontal forward motion, causing Glitch to step back in confusion.

Slowly lying down on his side, Glitch recoiled in the pain rushing throughout from his body from a fresh bruiser.

Slowly, Glitch found himself back to back with a brick wall. Trapped. Suddenly, he felt the arm strike him into the wall, holding him there by this lower neck, providing a strong restraint while keeping Glitch breathing.

Glitch coughed violently, neck sore from a firm grasp.

Squirming to escape, the Korean began to swing his feet around, and to no avail, quickly exhausted himself. He saw a mildly annoyed look in his assaulter's eyes. With one quick motion, the boy felt a sharp pound come into contact with the side of his stomach. The force of the blow forced him down the wall, scraping his sweatshirt open with a scratch. Nearly losing his breath from the sudden impact, Glitch was once forced out of himself when he received multiple knees to his stomach. The pain spread through Glitch's body like wildfire as he felt as if his ribs were being cracked. Glitch could barely catch his breath as he was hit again - this cycle repeated until an abrupt stop. Glitch felt his lower neck released, and slumped to the ground to regain control after the pain. He gasped heavily, unable to gain his breath, and rested on the ground for a few minutes until his breathing reached a steady rate. Wincing at the pain in his stomach as he slowly got himself up, he limped his way to the nearby alley - he loved this shortcut. When he didn't feel like going so far, he would take this route, concealed.

Glitch felt exhausted and ready to drop to the ground in fatigue. But it would do him no good to rest on the carpet, which was only above the hard floor. Limping, he found his way to the bedroom, and hand shaking violently, reached for the post for support, slowly navigating around the bed and slumping down onto it, not bothering the slip under the blanket. Breathing in and out in a steady pattern, he closed his eyes, trying to slip away into a sleep. He realized that it would not be the best decision to try without proper sleepwear, but for all the wrong reasons. Glitch winced at the pain in his abdomen as he got up and sat on the side of his bed, slipping out of his shorts into his conveniently worn boxers. Now came the hard part. Glitch bit down on his lip as he raised his arms, slow reaching to his sleeves to slip out of his shirt, revealing his body, seemingly clean from the assault, until it got lower. Glitch winced back at the pain as the cool air hit the revealed scars on his lower abdomen. Trying to stand up, Glitch bit down harder on his lip and released, letting out a painful moan as the pain from the attack and the scars on his body combined into a feeling hostile to his tolerance. Quickly wrapping his arms around his abdomen, the dancer began to shiver with pain, and lied back down, trying to get into a comfortable position. He shuffled into a position parallel with the bed, finding the strength to pull the blankets all around him as he rested his head on a pillow. He figured if he rested for a little bit, he'd have enough time to put on a shirt. But the pain lingered, flowing through his body like poison; he felt as if his insides were ablaze, and hot tears began to steadily stream down his face. Eventually, Glitch just stayed in that position, unable to find the willpower to get up, and soon, he lost consciousness.

Bodie tapped away on his phone, trying both to text and call Glitch, a somewhat worried look on his face.

When he failed to respond to the first attempts at contact, Bodie thought, "No biggie. He's probably not near his phone."

But as he sent more texts and called more with no sign of a response, Bodie became nervous. He knew that anyone would lose track of their phone, but not for so long. After a few hours, he became worried about him, and anxiously went about the rest of his shift at the beach lifeguard duty. As he carpooled home with Emilia, he began to do things that any nervous guy would do; twiddle with his thumbs, try to lie back in his seat, and stare absently into space. Emilia, noticing her friend's strange patterns, decided to strike up a conversation.

"Something up, B?"

Bodie snapped out of his seemingly mindless trance, somewhat startled by the sudden voice talking to him. Quickly turning in his best friend's direction, he put on that sometimes needed but usually not plastic smile.

Weakly, he responded "Not really. Just bored on a car ride."

He turned around, now trying to get into a trance state; too much was on his mind, and it was not needed.

Emilia smirked slyly. "Come on, Bodie. You know you can't sneak a lie around me. I've got the eyes of a hawk."

Bodie looked down at his lap, sighing. "Well, if you have to know know. I've been trying to talk to Glitch the past few hours, and he hasn't responded in a while. So I'm worried about him. You know me, always looking out for others."

Emilia looked curiously at him."You never know. Maybe he just doesn't have his phone on him. But for a few hours? That really does seem weird. But I wouldn't worry; I doubt he's in any trouble; maybe he's practicing with Mo."

Bodie turned his gaze out the window again, sighing an replying dryly."Sure, I guess you're right. Maybe I'm getting too overprotective."

Nevertheless, he continued to stare out the window until he returned to his apartment.

Quickly waving his goodbyes to Emilia, he started a steady fast walk to his apartment. As he reached the door, he began to nervously fumble around his pockets for his keys, taking a good minute to find them, nearly in hysterics. He rushed as he slipped the key in, breathing a sigh of relief as he saw Glitch's backpack on the floor - surely, he had to be here! Bodie put on a real smile this time, and calling in an eager voice, he began to search for his lover.

"Glitch? Yo, G!"

Bodie at last slowly slipped into the bedroom, smiling warmly as he found the little boy wrapped in blankets. Slowly walking over, he decided waking him from his slumber would be a good idea.

"Wake up, sleepyhead..." he whispered, as he began to pull the blankets off of Glitch.

As he pulled the last one off, he gasped and slightly stepped back at the sight he saw. There weren't too many, but nonetheless, he found himself looking at unhealed, straight scars on Glitch's rib area. Glitch moaned quietly as he began to fumble around in annoyance due to the loss of his blankets. Bodie began to panic at this new sight. It raised so many questions as to what went on in Glitch's life. He reached over to the medical supplies drawer, fumbling around for bandaids. He had never been in this drawer, so he nearly screamed when he saw the small knife under the large pile of band-aids, medicines, and other things. A few tears slid down his face; he didn't bother to dry them. All he was focused on right now was helping to patch these disgusting scars up. But the big, friendly guy everyone knew couldn't hold back his strong emotions, as he began to whimper at the concept of Glitch's scars. Peeling band-aid after band-aid, he finally finished after a few painful moments, and watched as Glitch's eyes fluttered open. The boy raised his fisted hands to adjust his eyes, and as he looked from side to side, he grew wide-eyed, as he saw Bodie looking down and crying. Bodie looked up and saw his stare, and grew into more despair as he screamed. He tacked Glitch into a tight embrace, crying even more violently than before.

"Glitch...oh my god...glitch.." was all he could mutter as he felt nothing from his lover.

Glitch did nothing for a while as Bodie held him tightly. For such a long time, he had kept this secret. And now, as he felt adhesive patches all over his body, he felt cruel. He had hidden this from Bodie, knowing very well how much it would've hurt him. And now that he knew, there was no telling what was to come next. He broke down just as quick, tears welling up into a quick stream.

"B-b-b-Bodie..."He quickly tightened his embrace as he soon became only aware of their embrace.

As cruel as Glitch felt, Bodie felt a seemingly empty void grow inside him. He had been so careless and ignorant, and when he found out, it was too late to care for them. Those scars - he knew that if there were that many, it must have been a few months. Not looking at Glitch, he choked out,

"How long..." Bodie choked at the answer he got - a few months, right on the money.

He didn't have to ask why - he knew why something like this would occur, and it hurt him to know that he couldn't see through that. Glitch never went shirtless around Bodie, and he never bothered to ask. Instead, his best idea was to ask,

"Why didn't you come to me? I would've helped you - you know I love you..."

Bodie was met with more whimpers and cries as Glitch was in an inconsolable state. He sighed heavily. He let go of the embrace, looking into Glitch's wide, watery eyes. He pulled Glitch around him, cradling him in his arms and lying down, and as he laid there, everything around him went silent as he listened to Glitch's crying and sniffling. The last thing he could say was said in a soft whisper.

"Promise me that you won't do this again."

Glitch barely heard this, but slowly shook his head in response. Bodie smiled lightly, bringing his lips down to Glitch's forehead, and dozing off to his lover's slowly receding crying.


	2. Chapter 2

Bodie paced around the bedroom, his right covered over his mouth as his left hand held his elbow. He continued to ponder why Glitch would choose to hurt himself as a reaction to bullying as opposed to coming to his lover - the friendliest, most caring and understanding guy he had. After a few minutes of intense silence and thinking, he chose to break the silence.

"Why?"  
"I couldn't take it. I was being bullied for being with you. I was-"

Bodie waved his hand out at Glitch, silencing the younger boy. Wearing a serious look, he responded, "I meant, why didn't you come to me about it? I could have helped you. But instead, you did what you did, and look at where we are now." He pointed at multiple bandages covering Glitch's lower abdomen. Glitch couldn't help but stare at the dark floor - an empty void, it was. He didn't have a realistic explanation, so the best he could do was choke out the truth. Quietly, he began to speak.

"I didn't want to get in your way." Sure, it was a stupid reason, but it was the closest to the truth.

Bodie stopped in place, remembering the natural selflessness a child like Glitch would have not to tell older people of their needs in fear of wasting their time. He walked over to Glitch and kneeled down to his face, meeting his dark, nearly lifeless eyes.

Bodie smiled warmly. "Hey, kiddo, you could never waste my time. Sure, I'm busy, but you know I can always make room for what you need. And what you need right now is help. You should have come to me if it was something like this. And...I should have known." Bodie slowly ruffled Glitch's hair, looking down at the ground with a sad expression.

Bodie felt a hand ruffle his own hair in response, noticing Glitch reaching over to him. "Nothing's your fault, B. I know I should have told you so much earlier, and I paid for that. I wouldn't be making you feel so bad, and...we wouldn't be in this mess." Glitch slowly drifted off from speaking anymore. He whispered, "It's all my fault. I'm so sorry, B."

Bodie perked up at Glitch's sad attempt to take the blame. "Don't say that, Glitch. Nothing was your fault. It's all because of those assholes who wouldn't get off your back, and more importantly, me. - Enough about that. Let's get you cleaned up.

Before Glitch could object, Bodie took his hand and began to drag him off of the bed and out of the room. Glitch soon found himself blinded by the light of the bathroom, and saw the door shut behind him.

"What are we doing here?"

Bodie looked at him blankly, reaching around him to skim through the drawers. With ease, he quickly pulled out two things - rubbing alcohol, and gauze pads. Seeing these two things made Glitch want to try and run - everyone hated the stinging pain that these would bring to scars and injuries. Bodie saw through this, smiling warmly as he wrapped his arms around Glitch, trapping him in his embrace. He pulled Glitch over to the bathtub, lowering him to sit on the edge. He kneeled down to Glitch's position, pulling out a handful of pads and opening up the alcohol bottle. Glitch cringed at the quickly wafting scent of the first-aid product. Hands shaking, Bodie nearly caused a spill as he unevenly shook the liquid onto the pads, still shaky from his recent discovery. Thankfully, the bandages on Glitch weren't on too long, so they wouldn't be painful for Glitch to take off. Slowly bringing a covered pad to Glitch's body, he slowly peeled off a bandage. He looked up at Glitch who nodded his head to signal a lack of pain. He ripped it off, cringing back as he saw one of those God forsaken scars. Bodie was shaking, and had to steady his right arm with his other to ensure he could help with these scars. He bought the gauze pad to the scar, and brought it to the scar, causing Glitch to gasp at the sudden pain.

"Is it too much?" Bodie worriedly inquired, not wanting to hurt his lover further.

Glitch sighed heavily. "No - just, clean it."

Bodie nodded, delicately and smoothly waving the pad over the scar, leaving a cleaner look around it. Glitch sighed in relief, as an airy coolness came over the pain that was once on the scar."

One by one, the bandages came off, as Bodie helped mitigate Glitch's perked wounds. As much as Bodie wanted to puke at the sight of these cuts, he persevered, not wanting to be weak at such a desperate time. After all the scars were cleaned, he tossed all the medical supplies and bandages in the trash - these wouldn't be needed anymore. Trying not to make contact with the red slashes, he lifted Glitch into his arms and turned the bathroom light off as he returned to the bedroom. He slowly laid himself on the mattress with Glitch in front of him, continuing to keep him wrapped in a warm embrace, while slowly enclosing blankets around him and Glitch. He let his head rest on a pillow as he pulled Glitch closer to him, not wanting to let go of him now.

Glitch cringed as he felt Bodie lightly feel his hand over one of his cuts, but it quickly pulled away.

Glitch could feel Bodie's warm breath treading on the back of his neck, slowly making its way to his ear.

"Promise me you won't do it again. I don't want to see you hurt."

Glitch barely managed to hold back tears at this request, but he had to do this. For himself. For Bodie.

"I-I promise,"

Bodie smiled weakly, and kissed the back of Glitch's neck.

"I love you, G."  
"Love you too."

Eventually, the two slipped into sleep, never separating from their original position.

* * *

**THE NEXT DAY - DCI HEADQUARTERS**

Bodie sat comfortably, albeit still a little shaken from the last night's events. He barely clung to the nearly inaudible words spoken by Rasa at the meeting, and twiddled his thumbs, bored out of his mind and impatiently waiting for the end. He turned to look at Glitch, who seemed to be paying attention.

Glitch noticed Bodie staring at him with a zoned-out look on his face.

Raising his eyebrow in curiosity, Glitch whispered, "Something up, B?"

Bodie snapped out of another seemingly trance like state, and found himself staring at Glitch, a look of questioning on his face.

He smiled warmly. "Nothing's up, Glitch. Just spacing out because of how boring this meeting this is." This earned a light smirk from Glitch as both turned back to listen to/ignore their adviser.

Bodie slipped his sunglasses from his forehead to his eyes, trying to cover up the drowsy look flooding over his eyes. Eventually, the meeting came to an end, and the DCI members began to pour out of the room.

"You coming, B?"

"I'll be out in a few minutes. Gotta talk to the boss."

Glitch shrugged. As Glitch left the room, Bodie stalled further until only he and Rasa were left in the room.

Bodie lightly dragged his feet over the floor to Rasa. Lifting his sunglasses to his forehead again, he put his hand on Rasa's shoulder to get his attention.

"Excuse me, uh, Rasa?"

Rasa turned to his side, seeing Bodie with a serious look.

"That's a pretty odd look for someone like you, agent. What's on your mind?"

Bodie let out a sigh.

"Well, one of my really good friends...I saw that he was doing things to himself - you know, self-harming and all, and it just sickened me to know that he was influenced to do that, and that he didn't tell me so I could help him.."

Rasa looked fairly serious - a common response to such a pivotal issue.

"No need to stop."

Bodie continued. "And, I'm talking to you about this, since I know you're so connected with this city, so I was wondering if you knew any good therapists that could help him, and of course, in a manageable price range."

Rasa looked fairly skeptical. "You're trying to get therapy for him yourself? And may I know who this friend is?"

Bodie was taken aback for a second - he didn't show it, and quickly responded. "Sorry, boss, it's really personal and I don't want to give out his name."

Rasa shrugged. "Well, who am I to get into someone's personal business?" In that case, you should try this little lady. She's an old friend of Lima and mine's. Smiling, he began to rummage through a drawer, pulling out a clean, plastic business card and presenting it to Bodie. Bodie took a quick glance at the card, deciding to take it and look at it later. He returned the older man's smile, and awkwardly displayed a random bout of emotion, wrapping his right arm around Rasa in a small embrace.

"Thanks for the help, boss." Bodie couldn't understand why he would do this, but he didn't mentally reject this display of emotion. A bittersweet feeling came over him, the pain of knowing of what Glitch did, and the happiness of knowing there could be a solution.

Rasa kept his smile. "Anything to help someone in need."

Bodie slipped the card down into his pocket, removing his arm and strolling out of the room, with a light grin on his face. He caught up with Glitch in the main room of DCI, who was moping around on a table, swinging his legs. Bodie smiled warmly as he walked over to Glitch.

"Hey, cutie," he said as he lightly kissed Glitch in the cheek. Glitch blushed. "Man, you know I don't like being called names like that!" Even though he whined, Bodie knew that he enjoyed that kind of attention for him. "So anyway...what took you a little longer than everyone else?" Glitch looked at Bodie curiously. Bodie put on a casual look, as if it weren't of the upmost importance, even though it was.

"I just had to talk to Rasa about some business stuff, not for DCI, but for other stuff." Glitch furrowed his eyebrows. "What kind of business?" Bodie responded with a quick "It's personal." He used those two words often to hide stuff he didn't need others to know about, and truth be told, this really was personal. Glitch shrugged, seemingly satisfied with Bodie's answer, and slid off of the table. He began to walk away to Bodie, since he had to attend to his Hi-Def duties for the day.

"Well, I'm gonna see what Mo's up to. Later B; love ya." Glitch was facing away from Bodie, so he waved his hand behind him.

"Love you too, Glitch," Bodie whispered, as he waved back at the hand. When he knew Glitch wouldn't be coming back for anything, he reached into his pocket, fumbling around the tight space for the card, pulling it out for a closer analysis.

**BAYCOAST CITY THERAPEUTIC PSYCHOLOGIES**

**Annie Claire, Psychologist**

**XXX - XXX - XXXX**

Bodie smiled as he finished reading the card. Slipping the card back into the pocket, he turned around to find Emilia, smirking with one hand on her hips and tapping her foot. He gave her a confused look, as she was just standing there with a seemingly demanding look.

"Well?"  
"Well what?"

"I'm waiting for you to tell me what's on the business card, and why you've got one." Emilia scoffed.  
"Oh, you mean this thing? Psh, it's nothing important to either of us. Just something I picked up."

Emilia let out a small chuckle.

"Come on, B. Like I said, you couldn't hide a secret if you really tried."

Bodie let out a breath, and decided that trying to hide it was a wasted effort. He pulled out the card, and handed it to Emilia, who snatched it from his hand quickly after he opened it.

Emilia scanned her eyes over the card, her goofy smile slowly fading into a serious look. She lifted her gaze up to Bodie, who was blushing and trying to avert his eyes in a different direction.

"So. Who's the therapy for?"

Bodie let out a weak sigh, not wanting this to be known by anyone but him, but with Emilia, there was no use trying to keep it personal.

"It's-It's for Glitch."

Emilia's straight face dropped into a frown as her eyes grew wider.

"Oh, she whispered."  
"Yeah."

Emilia decided that it wasn't worth putting such a burdening thought onto Bodie's mind for the day, so she perked up from her sad look and put on a smirk, walking over to Bodie and wrapping an arm around him.

"Come on, big guy. Keeping these thoughts in your head will get in your way, and your head needs to be in the game for DCI."  
"Yeah...Alright. I'll try not to think about it." Even though his response was weak, Bodie decided it wouldn't do him any good to keep Glitch's problem on his mind, and put on a grin.  
"Now that's what I like to see, B. By the way, here's your card back." Emilia slipped the card back into Bodie pocket, and led him to Lima to retrieve an assignment for the day.


End file.
